We build networks of pattern-changing social innovators and select high-impact entrepreneurs, who creatively solve some of the worlds biggest social challenges, to become Ashoka Fellows.
Ashoka believes that there is nothing more powerful than a new idea in the hands of a social entrepreneur. Social entrepreneurs are relentless team-builders and problem-solvers who set new norms in their fields of work. They are practical visionaries – practical in that they are highly attentive to the nuts and bolts of making things work, and visionary in that they often reframe the problem, build roles for others to participate, and cast a long term view for change at least at the national level.
If you know of anyone that fits the description, do let us know by nominating that person via our website - http://usa.ashoka.org/nominate-ashoka-fellow

Rethinking the Ratings: Newsweek Left Out 3 Essential Metrics of a Top College

It’s that time of the year again. Last week Newsweek released their annual college rankings report. The publication, which analyzes universities and sorts them into Top 25 lists of various themes, inevitably generates a bunch of buzz in the higher education world.

But for every student, employer and recent graduate grappling with the value of today’s university degree, I have a message.

The ratings don’t reflect what actually matters about college. The algorithm behind the rankings is flawed. And while it’s nice to know which colleges have the most attractive students or most parties, these factors are wholly insignificant.

Arizona State University encourages its students to pursue social change. (Image by Kevin Dooley, Flickr Creative Commons)

As the world of higher education teeters on the precipice of innovative change, thinking in terms of these simplistic rating systems threatens the possibility of the evolution of the university. The indelible Newsweek seal is distracting our country from what the university should strive to become.

The purpose of today’s university is not simply to be a place where a student can live and learn. The university instead can be — and should be — a laboratory for engaged and enriching interactions, exploration and research. And to do that, we need to break from the confines of the outdated ranking mentality.

Last week in Washington D.C., thought and action leaders in the education sector came together at the Ashoka U Influencer, a forum on social innovation for higher education. The two-day conference was a unique opportunity for discussions on how to trigger systematic change to tackle some of the most pressing challenges facing higher education today. In other words, we took the first step in thinking past the ratings.

Based off the emerging solutions, ideas and themes from the conference, here are the three new ranking categories Newsweek should add to the list.

Student Investment. Look past the extravagant gym facilities and dining halls. Those do nothing for creating socially aware, critically thinking students. Structures like this groom students to become more dependent on physical structures and on campus. Instead, let’s celebrate universities who spend tuition dollars on what matters. Like Arizona State University, whose Changemaker Central space provides students access to “opportunities and resources to inspire, catalyze and sustain student-driven social change.” Or George Mason University, whose president Angel Cabrera considers the institution’s financial constraints an opportunity to find programmatic gems that provoke students to think, act and create. If we want students to be independent thinkers, let’s invest in things that make them independent and self-sufficient people.

A Culture of Innovation. The paradigm of the student as a passive recipient of knowledge from a Ph.D-clad professor has become rapidly antiquated. We need to encourage institutions to experiment with innovative systems that incorporate modern technology, vocational preparedness and practicality. Think externships and internships. Think intersections between pedagogy and social value creation. Think about creating a robust pipeline between a college and the workforce. The university is an ecosystem. Let’s recognize those campuses that are diffusing innovation.

Civic Mission. The less insular a campus is — the less the ivy-laced walls and gothic architecture keep the community out — the better. Let’s celebrate universities who have imbued their students with a drive to serve their communities. Civic engagement connects students to real-world challenges and partnerships in a unique way. Universities should recognize and capitalize on their position to foster these connections using their social and financial capital. Tulane University has made public service a graduation requirement, marking a permanent trend in how the university interacts with its community. A Tulane education is now a New Orleans education.

Ashoka U has recognized that social innovation is a key ingredient to the reinvention of higher education. And it is, absolutely. Reframing how we see the potential and purpose of college will drive deliberate and revolutionary change.

Universities, like people, have a tendency to adapt to what society values. So let’s rethink how we rate and value our university. Let’s look past the sunny days and pretty buildings and ask ourselves what the real purpose of higher education should be. And that’s how purpose-driven innovation will happen.

Post Your Comment

Post Your Reply

Forbes writers have the ability to call out member comments they find particularly interesting. Called-out comments are highlighted across the Forbes network. You'll be notified if your comment is called out.

Comments

Right…more sour grapes from a Tulane alumna! Anyway, Forbes should really talk: Forbes’s own survey has a long way to go before it can be taken seriously. They’ve been trying mightily for years to come up with a metric which can compete with USNews but for some reason they keep failing–and failing embarrassingly.

Who can take seriously a list which puts Wabash and Kalamazoo ahead of Johns Hopkins? Notre Dame ahead of Penn? Colby, Colorado College and Tufts ahead of Dartmouth, Berkeley and Cornell?

So… Tulane and Ashoka is it? Nice try, but sorry, no cigar–Forbes isn’t remotely ready for prime time in this field. You shouldn’t be throwing stones at Newsweek or anyone else.

Job placement rates of graduate in each field should be the top assessment battery entailed in college rankings. Few places hire based on smarts alone anymore; even Google demands expertise in the specific fields of connectivity, SEO, data mining, etc. such that a Classics, social science, or natural sciences major stands less of a chance at employment there than an identically intelligent vocational college graduate who specialized in IT and Web development courses.

The college job placement rankings would hence reflect the average quality of connections one makes at the college because all too often, who you know matters more than what you know. I would then weigh academic reputation / research output second-most heavily.

Ms. Holiday, I think that the three criteria you identify are essential to making higher education relevant to the demands of a global, technologically driven economy that has over time produced a bifurcation of wealth and concomitant deep seated pockets of poverty and social dislocation. How can one dispute that a culture of innovation that engages the surrounding community are exactly what society should be recognizing? The current ranking institutions that have so much influence reduce the process to an ossified version of the college football ranking system. these institutions can go ahead and produce such rankings, but it would be more helpful if colleges and universities that excelled at making an impact in this technologically demanding, competitive economy that is leaving more and more people behind. I don’t see it likely, however, because rankings such as US News, which measure inputs instead of outputs, touch the core of the human ego and, indeed, the human condition, as social stratification is ingrained in all of the animal kingdom and homo sapiens are no exception. It’s a shame that the most popular “rankings” play to this instinct, but it is an unfortunate reality that is not going away anytime soon. This is why rankings lists in many fields — not just higher education — receive such inordinate attention. And this is not an inconsequential phenomenon, as most universities invest valuable time and attention, and even reduce class sizes and direct precious financial aid resources toward students with higher SAT scores who don’t need the money, all in an effort to bolster their ranking. The resources would be much better spent in the way in which Ms. Holiday suggests. Kudos to Tulane and Arizona State for leading the way in this regard. I hope that they are appropriately recognized.

Ms. Holiday, I think that the three criteria you identify are essential to making higher education relevant to the demands of a global, technologically driven economy that has over time produced a bifurcation of wealth and concomitant deep seated pockets of poverty and social dislocation. How can one dispute that a culture of innovation that engages the surrounding community is exactly what society should be recognizing? The current ranking institutions that have so much influence reduce the process to an ossified version of the college football ranking system. These institutions can go ahead and produce such rankings, but it would be more helpful if there were rankings that recognized colleges and universities that excelled at making an impact in this technologically demanding, competitive economy that is leaving more and more people behind. I don’t see it likely, however, because rankings such as US News, which measure inputs instead of outputs, touch the core of the human ego and, indeed, the human condition, as social stratification is ingrained in all of the animal kingdom and homo sapiens are no exception. It’s a shame that the most popular “rankings” play to this instinct, but it is an unfortunate reality that is not going away anytime soon. This is why rankings lists in many fields — not just higher education — receive such inordinate attention. And this is not an inconsequential phenomenon, as most universities invest valuable time and attention, and even reduce class sizes and direct precious financial aid resources toward students with higher SAT scores who don’t need the money, all in an effort to bolster their ranking. The resources would be much better spent in the way in which Ms. Holiday suggests. Kudos to Tulane and Arizona State for leading the way in this regard. I hope that they are appropriately recognized.

Good article. If more students and young or old people used online education opportunities, the large amount of tuition is taken out of the equation. Learning is for learning not to spend 4 years in debt with no promise of a job.